Effects of Test-Enhanced Learning on Music Skill Acquisition and Retention

Abstract

College-aged undergraduate music majors (N = 120) were participants in this study exploring the impact of a practice performance on the quality of final performance for dependent variables of various microstructural aspects of performance, (i.e., timing, prosody, errors, and expressive aspects of the music), as well as overall performance. Each participants answered items on a questionnaire to attain information regarding previously held attitudes and beliefs about learning music and practice strategies. All participants were given an initial study period in which they were instructed not to make any instrumental sounds. The four different experimental conditions created reflect the different possible amounts of exposure to the piece of music that would likely occur during an individual's learning of the music. Results would be expected to reflect the notion that the greater the amount of interaction with the piece of music during a practice phase would result in higher overall achievement on final performance score.